Word of the Day

Friday, October 10, 2008

legerdemain

\lej-ur-duh-MAIN\ , noun;

Sleight of hand.

A display of skill, trickery, or artful deception.

Quotes:

We are inclined to regard the treatment of [paradoxes] . . . as a mere legerdemain of words.

-- Benjamin Jowett, Dialogues of Plato

Their alleged legerdemain at the blackjack table and roulette wheel of the luxurious Salle Anglaise was caught on closed-circuit television.

-- "Double dealing puts Monte Carlo in a spin", Daily Telegraph, February 23, 1997

There is a certain knack or legerdemain in argument.

-- Shaftesbury, Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times

Origin:

Legerdemain is from Old French leger de main, literally "light of hand": leger, "light" + de, "of" + main, "hand."